Transdisciplinary perspectives on current transformations at extractive and
agrarian frontiers in Latin America

Special Issue in the Journal of Land Use Science
Editors: A. Cristina de la Vega-Leinert1 & Regine Schönenberg2
1 Geography and Geology Institute, Greifswald University, Germany
2 Institute for Latin American Studies, Free University Berlin, Germany
Overall goal and scope
Land Use Science is a powerful approach to detect, analyse and compare
transformations over broader scales (global, regional, national), in
investigating the explanatory potential of specific variables (e.g. land
tenure, environmental governance, law enforcement, demography, technology,
cultivation systems, market development ect.) and impacts of plausible futures
in modelling exercises. Nevertheless, all too often are policy recommendations
from Land Use / Land Cover (LULC) studies based on mainly natural-science /
quantitative modelling and scenarios, which ignore history, governance,
ethnicity, gender, power and crime, amon other critical dimensions.
Despite existing diversity in Land Use Science, we believe that it is crucial
to incorporate approaches that take as a starting point overlooked or
oversimplified socio-cultural, political, economic, legal dimensions, which
frame, drive and result from LULC change. To this end, we invite contributions
from social science perspectives, which have a long tradition of addressing
complex social-ecological processes involved in land use transformations
differentially and fruitfully, in particular: political ecology, cultural /
critical geography, agrarian, gender and cultural studies, environmental
justice, ethnobotany, anthropology, history, political sciences… Such
cross-fertilisation will enhance the ability of Land Use Science to improve
current understanding of land use dynamics and formulate policy recommendations
that may explicitly address important issues related to rights, governance,
societal / cultural values and social / human behaviour, among others.
The general aim of the proposed special issue is:
* to analyse current socio-ecological, economic, political-administrative
and cultural transformations at extractive and agrarian frontiers in Latin
America. We thereby wish to capture the diversity of (neo)extractivist,
(post)neo-liberal governance characteristic of this region in the last decades.
* to explore in those regions the inter-relations between Land Cover / Land
Use trends and:
* land tenure, processes of access to, and loss of, land and natural
resources, including formal and informal mechanisms such as changing laws, land
markets, and impacts of impunity etc.
* changes in productive systems, technology and value chains, including
forestry (Timber Product and Non Timber Product), mining and agriculture
(industrial / small scale), fossil fuel extraction, tourism, conservation, etc.)
* trends in in- and out-migration (push and pull factors, trajectories
and migration routes, emitting / receiving regions, transnational communities,
remittance)
* formal and informal changes in labour conditions (landless /
contracted workers, on / off farm activities, local rural vs external labour
markets)
* gender and generational dimensions related to land tenure / use,
labour, health, migration, etc.
* health impacts of land use conversion and intensification
* external (e.g. infrastructural development, regional / market
integration, policies etc.) vs. internal drivers of change (e.g. changes in
aspirations, value systems, behaviour, livelihoods and living standards, etc.)
* spilling effects of land use change and border dynamics (e.g. food
market / smuggling, traffic of land, drugs, humans, timber, displacement of
land use, phytosanitary standards)
* to understand the interdependence of governance, law enforcement,
impunity, violence, slave labour and criminal networks and LULC changes
Articles may be:
* Review articles that choose one or a combination of topics above and
provide an exhaustive panorama of the literature of relevance to further
research on current and future socio-ecological and cultural transformations at
extractive and agrarian frontiers in Latin America.
* Empirical case studies that illustrate how:
1) a particular disciplinary approach within the social sciences (e.g.
political ecology, cultural / critical geography, agrarian, gender and cultural
studies, environmental justice, ethnobotany, ethno-ecology, anthropology,
history, political sciences, law); or
2) interdisciplinary perspectives (centred on at least one the disciplines
mentioned above)
effectively contribute to enrich the LU Science debate / improve LULC modelling
Interested authors should submit a 300 words to
ac.delav...@uni-greifswald.de<mailto:ac.delav...@uni-greifswald.de> and
regine.schoenenb...@fu-berlin.de<mailto:regine.schoenenb...@fu-berlin.de> by
the 30th April 2018. Abstract will be selected by 31th May 2018 and selected
authors will be invited to write a full paper by 30th September 2018.
Proposed work plan
* March: Open call to enlarge the selection of case studies (Deadline for
the submission of abstracts: 30th April)
* End May: Abstracts reviewed and selected authors invited to write a full
paper
* End of September: Submission of papers
* Till Mid December: External review of papers
* End of December: Reviews to authors (2nd Version due by end of February)
- Draft introduction and synthesis
* March 2019: Submission of revised papers and finalised Introduction and
Synthesis to LU Science
—
Darla K. Munroe, PhD
Professor
The Ohio State University
Department of Geography
1123 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210
614-247-8382 Office / 614-292-6213 Fax
munro...@osu.edu<mailto:munro...@osu.edu> osu.edu<http://osu.edu/>